Originally Posted by
BoldPilot
Never understood delaying happiness and fulfillment until you’re in your “retirement years”. Not saying to be financially irresponsible, but if you make the money then you should enjoy the life. Nobody is guaranteed to make it to those retirement years. Everyone is one car crash, heart failure, or fell down the stairs and broke my neck away from death. I know people that saved up and did everything they can to retire. They only enjoyed it for a couple years before they passed away suddenly. Be smart with the money, but also enjoy life. You only have one life to live after all. That’s my soap box for the day!
That's what my Dad told me. I kind of split the difference, fairly frugal when I was younger but had the occasional toy and went on plenty of vacations. When you're young all you really need is money for beer and time to meet the opposite sex. I saved elaborate hobbies and fulfillment for later years. Notable hobbies: home improvement and homebrew. I'd argue that you don't really NEED to build an RV-10 prior to age 35.
That allowed me to afford aviation and in my late 40's everything all kind of came together and suddenly you wake up wealthy. Did not require FIRE-esque self-denial but I saved more than average and worked more than average too, rather than searching far and wide for pastimes to consume my time off and money. Flexible outside employment/skills help... I did more outside work when the industry was slow, focused more on time building when it was appropriate.
Six months ago I told people that I slow-rolled my aviation career progression too much and in 20/20 hindsight I should have focused more on aviation, and more aggressively. Now with 20/15 hindsight I guess I'm glad I have some eggs in other baskets.